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Change in Germany Between …? (6) 45 min exam 5 questions 1) Describe the … (5 marks) Germany 2) How far did …change in Germany between …? (6) 3) Arrange the …in order of their significance in … 1919- Germany after the ... Explain your choices. (9) 4) Explain why …different for 1991 … Germans after ... (8) 5) How important was …in Hitler`s …between …? (12) 1 Pages 3- 11 Pages 13- 20 Pages 21- 28 Pages 29- 37 Pages 38- 46 Pages 47- 54 Pages 55- 62 2 KEYWORDS Reparations Money which Germany Key Qu- 1 had to pay the Allies from How successful were the 1921 League of Nations Organisation to keep the Weimar government in peace in the world Weimar constitution The new democratic dealing with Germany’s government of Germany problems between 1919- Spartacist Uprising Communist revolt against 1933? the Weimar government Kapp putsch Right-wing revolt against the Weimar government You need to know about: Freikorps Ex-servicemen from WW1 • Impact of WW1 p4 Gustav Stresemann Chancellor of Germany • Terms of the Treaty of Versailles p4 1923 • The Weimar Republic p5 Foreign minister 1923-29 • Opposition to the Republic p6 Dawes Plan 1924- $800m gold marks • Economic/political/ foreign reform lent to Germany under Stresemann p7-8 Hyperinflation When the prices of goods rise significantly above wages 3 KEY QUESTION 1- How successful were the Weimar government in dealing with Germany’s problems between 1919-1933? Impact of WW1 on Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919) War Guilt clause 231: Germany accepted blame for ‘causing all the loss Germany and damage’ of the war. • Naval mutiny at Kiel and violent protests over Army: 100,000/no submarines/no aeroplanes/6 battleships/No military Germany led to Kaiser’s abdication. allowed in Rhineland • The Kaiser’s government had collapsed. Republic now Reparations: £6,600 million – in yearly payments as compensation, set up. extended by the Young Plan 1929 • Over 2 million Germans had died. Germany lost land- Alsace-Lorraine to France/Saar to • Germany was close to bankruptcy. France (15 years)/West Prussia and Upper Silesia to Poland/Danzig a ‘free • Serious food shortages. city’/German colonies became ‘mandates’ of the League of Nations. • Serious political divisions League of Nations set up. between left and right Extra points- forbidden to unite with Austria. Estonia/Latvia and Lithuania to be independent states. Political impact of Treaty of Versailles • New republic blamed for signing the humiliating ‘Treaty’. Couldn’t shake off ‘stab in the back’ propaganda from right-wing groups. • Germans felt bitter resentment to new republic. Army leaders blamed the government ‘November Criminals’ for signing armistice. Economic impact of the Treaty of Versailles • Huge debt after the war. Lost industrial areas after the Treaty so struggled A German cartoon published in 1919. The German mother is saying to her to pay reparations. starving child: ‘When we have paid one • Government preferred to borrow money instead of raising taxes so printed hundred billion marks then I can give you something to eat.’ more money. Led to currency declining in value but prices of good going up. • 1923- Germany missed a reparations payment- Ruhr crisis and 4 hyperinflation. KEY QUESTION 1- How successful were the Weimar government in dealing with Germany’s problems between 1919-1933? What was the Weimar republic? Article 48 President Elect can rule every 7 without years Parliament All men and women over 20 could vote Proportional Representation or ‘One person one vote’ meant that all Germans could vote in elections for their leaders. The country was so divided that this led to many small parties getting support, some had to try and work together in a coalition government to run the country– this led to arguments and slow decisions. 5 KEY QUESTION 1- How successful were the Weimar government in dealing with Germany’s problems between 1919-1933? OPPOSITION TO THE WEIMAR GOVERNMENT 3 political ideas affected Germany after 1918 SPARTACIST UPRISING 1919 COMMUNISM DEMOCRACY NATIONALISM •In Jan 1919, 50,000 Spartacists rebelled in Berlin, led by the Communists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and tried to set up a Soviet form of government. Nationalists believed Communism believed •The rebellion was put down quickly by the that Germany needed that: workers should a strong leader to army and the Freikorps in bitter street fighting control businesses return Germany to and government using and both sides suffered losses. the powerful position violence and • Uprising badly planned. Leaders captured it had before world revolution if and shot. War One. necessary. Communist groups had different They hated names in different Democracy and the MUNICH PUTSCH 1923 countries in Russia, Weimar Republic, they • Hitler and 600 stormtroopers burst into a meeting by they were called believed it made Bolsheviks. Germany weak. Kahr (leader of Bavaria). Waving a gun at them, Hitler forced them to agree to rebel - and then let them go home. • SA took over the army headquarters and the offices KAPP PUTSCH 1920 of the local newspaper. • 12,000 Freikorps (ex-army) led by • Next day, 9 November 1923, Hitler and his 3,000 Wolfgang Kapp marched on Berlin troops went into Munich, however, Kahr had called in because the government ordered the police and army reinforcements. break up of the Freikorps. • There was a short scuffle in which the police killed 16 • Weimar government fled but the putsch Nazis. did not have support. Berlin workers went • Hitler fled, but was arrested two days later. Sent to on strike. After 4 days the government prison for 5 years but served 9 months. Trial was a6 returned. platform for his ideas to the public. KEY QUESTION 1- How successful were the Weimar government in dealing with Germany’s problems between 1919-1933? CONTENT- economic/political/foreign reform under Stresemann How successful was STRESEMANN in the 1920s in leading Germany to recovery? The economy- SUCCESSES • Called off passive resistance in Ruhr • Called in worthless marks and burnt them. new currency called the Rentenmark • Negotiated to receive American loans under the Dawes Plan, 800 million marks • Renegotiated reparations payments • By 1927 German industry seemed to have recovered well • 1928 achieved the same levels of production as before the war and became the worlds second greatest industrial power Gustav Stresemann • Wages rose. Higher standards of living Chancellor 1923 • Reparations were being paid Foreign minister 1924-29 • Exports were on the increase • Government was even able to increase welfare benefits and wages for state employees Foreign Policy -Successes • Stresemann’s greatest achievements were Politics- SUCCESSES in foreign policy • 1925 he signed the Locarno Treaties, • Became more stable guaranteeing not to change Germany’s • No attempted revolutions after 1923 western borders with France and Belgium • Parties that supported the Republic did • 1926 Germany was accepted into the LON well at elections • Stresemann began to work quietly on reversing the term of the Treaty 7 KEY QUESTION 1- How successful were the Weimar government in dealing with Germany’s problems between 1919- CONTENT1933? - economic/political/foreign reform under Stresemann How successful was STRESEMANN in the 1920s in leading Germany to recovery? You need to The economy- FAILURES • The boom was precarious, if US loans were recalled it make sure you would cause ruin • Unemployment began to rise understand what • Peasant farmers were over producing • Many small businesses became disillusioned Stresemann • Small shopkeepers saw their businesses threatened by large department stores achieved but also problems Politics- FAILURES • Both the Nazis and Communists were building up their which still party organisations • During these stable years there were still four existed Chancellors and it was only the influence of party leaders which held party coalitions together • Worryingly 30% of the vote went to parties opposed Foreign Policy -FAILURES to the Republic • Nationalists attacked Stresemann for • Right wing parties were quiet rather than destroyed signing Locarno, seeing it as an acceptance • Parties like the Nazis made themselves more of the Treaty respectable • Communists also attacked Locarno seeing it • Hindenburg was elected as President in 1926, he as a plot against the Communist opposed democracy and even wrote to the Kaiser in government in the USSR. exile for approval before taking up the post! 8 KEY QUESTION 1- How successful were the Weimar government in dealing with Germany’s problems between 1919-1933? Invasion of the Ruhr The Ruhr NEED TO PAY 1922 / 23 REPARATIONS France invaded the industrial area of the Germany called the Ruhr in + retaliation for the inability of Germany to pay the reparations in 1922 as they had missed a payment. NO MONEY TO They would seize the money in terms of goods, resources and machinery instead. PAY WITH = The Weimar Government ordered passive resistance and the German workers went on strike. This meant that the French could not gain any raw PRINT MONEY materials as payment for the reparations but also that the Germans lost a huge amount of their profits as the area did not make a goods to sell. MONEY LOSES VALUE The French killed over 100 passive resistors and expelled 100,000 protestors out of the Ruhr region. = HYPERINFLATION Hyperinflation 1919 - 23 The sudden flood of paper money into the economy combined with a weak economy ruined by the Ruhr Crisis war resulted in hyperinflation Prices ran out of control - eg a loaf of bread, which cost 250 marks in January 1923 had risen made to 200,000 million marks in November 1923. German's currency became worthless. Some people used money as fuel. People collected their wages in suitcases. Hyperinflation Pensioners on fixed incomes and people with savings were the most badly hit. One woman sold her house with the intention of using the money to live on. A few weeks later, the money wasn't even enough to buy a loaf of bread.
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